Panel keeps minimum wage statewide; cuts indexing

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A panel of Maryland lawmakers has voted to increase the state's minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour over three years, but lawmakers stripped out a proposal to index future increases to inflation.

They also delayed when the hikes would take effect incrementally by six months. The House Economic Matters Committee voted yesterday for a bill that keeps an exemption for restaurants and bars that make less than $250,000 a year from paying minimum wage.

The committee also decided to freeze the minimum wage for tipped workers at $3.63 an hour and to require employers to make up the difference, if employees did not make enough in tips to meet the new minimum wage rates.